FOX & FRIENDS / OCTOBER 10, 2011

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Mitt Romneys faith is in the spotlight right now after Texas pastor Robert Jeffress called the religion a cult. So what exactly do Mormons believe? Here to separate fact from fiction, author of Mormons Believe What?! Gary Lawrence. Good morning to you Gary. GARY LAWRENCE: Good morning, Gretchen. GRETCHEN: Let me start out with what that pastor had said, that he believes that Mormons belong to a cult. How would you answer that accusation? GARY: Well, thats an unfortunate choice of words. In religious circles, the C-word is equivalent to an ethnic slur. It simply has no place in civil Christian dialogue. GRETCHEN: One of the things that you wrote about in your book is that theres a lot of confusion in the American public about exactly what a person who believes in Mormonism is. And so I want to go to one of the questions that you asked in your polling. Which was, when asked whether Mormons practice polygamy, only 14% knew the correct answer, which is, No. Why is there so much confusion about polygamy and being a Mormon? GARY: Whenever you have Mormons and polygamy brought up in a conversation, the main thing to remember is a simple sentence: Yes we did and no we dont. A certain small percentage of Mormons practiced polygamy in the 1800s, but since 1890 that has not been the practice. So people still rely a little bit on history for that point. Now, with that, weve had some breakaway groups from our religion. Were 14 million people and theyre less than 50,000. And yet some of them practice polygamy and we get tainted with their illegal actions. GRETCHEN: So when someone asks you, Are Mormons Christian? how do you respond? GARY: Absolutely. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and those first five words really tell you that we are Christians. That whole point of dispute arose in the debate about the Trinity. We believe in the Godhead, but we do not believe in the Trinity as it was described in the Athanasian creed in the fourth century. GRETCHEN: Right. And thats where the disparity is because Christians always say they believe in the Trinity, so well leave that up to our viewers to decide on that. I want to get to the point of being elected President, though. Do you believe that Mormon can be elected President? Should it matter?

GARY: Yes, I do believe a Mormon can be elected President. The factor of religion in the vote decision is really a second level or third level factor. For example, Mitt Romney is known by 85% of the people, but only 41% know his religion. Similarly, only 11% know Jon Huntsmans and 6% know Senate Majority Leader Harry Reids religion, which is also LDS or Mormon. By comparison, Michelle Bachmanns Lutheranism is known by 7% and only 1% know that Rick Perry is a Methodist. What these small numbers tell you is that if religion were a greater factor in the vote decision, more people would know peoples religions. GRETCHEN: Very interesting. You have written a book, Mormons Believe What?! Fact and Fiction About a Rising Religion. Thank you so much for your thoughts this morning. GARY: Thank you, Gretchen.